As the media continues to create mass hysteria around Putin potentially attacking NATO members, Putin attempts to put those fears to rest with a rather straight forward response, “Russia is not going to attack anyone.”

Putin went on to accuse the West of exaggerating the threat Russia poses to the world to justify increased military spending, insisting a Russian attack is “simply stupid and unrealistic.”

The Russian president also sought to dismiss allegations that he is plotting to rig the US elections to his own benefit, noting that the US is a great power and not some banana republic with an easily manipulated political system. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in such plots.

NATO has played up the Russian threat to justify sending over 40,000 ground troops to the Russian border, with ever-growing numbers announced all the time. Such predictions started after the ouster of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine led to a civil war in that country’s east, with NATO military leaders repeatedly predicting Russian tanks rolling across Ukraine into NATO countries.